History of American Television

Mgr. et Mgr. Jana Jedličková, Ph.D.

History of American Television

Mgr. et Mgr. Jana Jedličková, Ph.D.

History of American Television

Info

NOTE

The course History of US TV will not be held on April, 24th, 2025 - Reading week. Instead, students will be asked to read a paper focusing on one of discussed topics and will need to answer several questions in a written form.

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The History of American Television course offers a basic overview of the historical development of the emergence and establishment of television as a broadcast medium, the shaping of the American television industry from its beginnings to the present, and the basic aspects, trends, and programming conventions of the major American broadcasters and TV streamers from the late 1930s to the 21st century.
The lectures combine several perspectives stemming from media, television and cultural studies. In particular, they focus on the institutional level of the shape of the American television market in conjunction with the economic perspective related to private ownership and the legislative need to regulate persistent monopolizing tendencies. However, we also emphasize the connection between cultural and political events that have a significant impact on television trends, both in programming and institutional terms.
For these reasons, the course is designed partly as a frontal lecture with space for discussion with the students, partly as a projection seminar, where the historical context is supplemented with examples of contemporary American programmes and their commentary placing the examples in the context of the material discussed.
Attendance at the course is not compulsory, however, the teacher does not share the presentations used during the lectures with the students. Learners will find the materials needed to pass the course in the course syllabus (reading list)/interactive syllabus, as well as are expected to take continuous notes during lectures. Taking pictures of presentation material or recording audio from lectures is not permitted.

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REQUIREMENTS

4 written intermediate tests (students are assumed to watch a mandatory screening and answer questions based on the screening and themed lectures)

final written test consisting of partially analytical, partially fact based questions
intermediate tests consist of 5 questions each; students can collect up to 40 points for all the intermediate tests

final test consists of 20 questions, 15 of them fact based, 5 of them analytical ones (open answers); students can collect up to 60 points

final test takes up to 60 minutes

to recognize credits the student needs to collect at least 70 points out of 100 during the semestr and from the final test

FINAL TEST TERMS - 1. term 30. 5., 2. term 13. 6., 3. term 27. 6.

INTERMEDIATE TESTS terms

***Note***

Each test consists of 5 questions. You can get up to 2 points for each correct answer. Only one answer is right for each question. For the whole test you have only 5 minutes. You have one try for the whole test and you can not return for already answered questions.